Tuning in: 2012

Greetings, LitMusicians! I still plan to post something retrospective/summarial about our first two weeks of discussion (perhaps this weekend), and to seek out more comments on "Tintern Abbey," perhaps, especially in light of our immersion in sonata form (via Mozart and Beethoven) on Wednesday, but for now a posting of lesser import. It's not quite my take on the musical DNA assignment you're working on this weekend, but this will at least give you a snapshot of one very small strand of my DNA. At the end of every year I tend to sink countless hours into scouring the music blogs and the "best of the year" song and record lists; combining new finds with music I myself picked up during the year, I then assemble compilation cds that I call "Alts, Indies, Pop Confections, and Other Notables." Here are the track listings for Volumes 1 & 2 for 2012 (after all the classical music we had in class Wednesday, this will help mix things up!):

Vol 1:
1. "Eyeoneye," Andrew Bird 2. "Animal Life," Shearwater 3. "Trembling Hands," The Temper Trap 4. "I Will Wait," Mumford & Sons 5. "Long Slow Dance," The Fresh & Onlys 6. "Ho Hey," The Lumineers 7. "1904," The Tallest Man on Earth 8. "Ways of Man," Old Crow Medicine Show 9. "Live and Die," The Avett Brothers 10. "Love Spent," Madonna 11. "Priscilla," Sea Wolf 12. "Change the Sheets," Kathleen Edwards 13. "I'm Not Talking," A.C. Newman 14. "Emmylou," First Aid Kit 15. "Leonard," Sharon Van Etten 16. "Little Talks," Of Monsters and Men 17. "All the Rowboats," Regina Spektor 18. "Skyfall," Adele 19. "Is Your Love Big Enough?" Lianne La Havas 20. "It's Only Life," The Shins.

Vol. 2:
1. "Proceed to Memory," Pinback 2. "That's What's Up," Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros 3. "Cherry Blossom Tree," Imaginary Cities 4. "Cry for Judas," The Mountain Goats 5. "Andrew in Drag," The Magnetic Fields 6. "Love is a Country," The Wallflowers 7. "Life's a Beach," Django Django 8. "Gun Has No Trigger," Dirty Projectors 9. "Losing You," Solange 10. "Into the Night," Chromatics 11. "I Belong in Your Arms," Chairlift 12. "Lord Knows," Dum Dum Girls 13. "Capricornia," Allo Darlin' 14. "Heaven," The Walkmen 15. "When I Was Young," Nada Surf 16. "Back to the Stone," Woods 17. "Teardrop Windows," Ben Gibbard 18. "Thinkin Bout You," Frank Ocean 19. "Myth," Beach House 20. "My Flaming Thirst," Pepe Deluxe 21. "Milk-Heavy, Pollen-Eyed," Laura Gibson.

My most memorable records of 2012 were probably The Avett Brothers' "The Carpenter," Shearwater's "Animal Joy," First Aid Kit's "The Lion's Roar" (and, wow, if you don't know their song "Emmylou," you must seek it out, such as this performance from their appearance on Conan -- it's a sweet song with a chorus to die for from a Swedish duo who wonderfully channel Americana and alt-country), and Woods's "Bend Beyond." I guess in sharing all this I'm implicitly asking you to add some songs of the year I may have missed! Have a good weekend, everyone!